Hi Y'all,
    First post here & it's a real basic one.  Have been messing around with music & with computers for a while but never put the two together.
    I'd like to try PC based recording & have read Entheon's excellent posts for first timers & the mixer lesson.
    What I would like to know is what type of mixer I need to record a band. Thats 2 guitars, bass, drums, (occasional keyboard) & maybe 2 vocals.  Do I need a seperate input for each? Is there a cheap(ish) way of doing it?
Can anyone recommend a specific mixer (or warn me away from any?)  BTW, I intend to use the Krystal freebie software.  Is this a good start?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Cheers,
F14

I do not know about recording mutiple instruments at once. However, I do know that I have used Kristal, and it didn't work out very well for me. There was some kind of lag, when I recorded another track there was a delay between the first and the second. I have switched to Audactiy (also free) and it is working out much better.

Separate input for each is a must... otherwise you will get clipping and odd noises and it wont be pretty...


   The better bet is a http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/BehringerEurorackUB1222FXPROMixer?sku=631229
 
    The Cheapest bet is a
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/BehringerEurorackUB1202Mixer?sku=631236

These will let you get all instruments mic'd properly... and allow you to go out to your PC,digital,or tape recorder....  plus, it will work great for your live gigs.....

  Fantastic mixers, both of them......

 as for recording, I use Audacity myself.... it depends on your budget, personally, I don't know how much money you have available, and how many mics you have, have you ever mic'd a drum set, here is a nice drum mic set, and a great price too http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/NadyDMK5DrumMicPackage?sku=277126

But, see now you are at just about $200 not too shabby, but you still probably need vocal mics, http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/MXLMXL990CondenserMicrophonewithShockmount?sku=273156
this is a great condenser mic, but if your going to be all in the same room, recording "live" then you will want something more like http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ShureSM57InstrumentVocalMic?sku=270102

So, how you are recording your band makes a big difference.. You can record each separately and get much better quality, because each track is done seperate you can edit, you wont have background interference.. etc... so, whatever you decide, you dont have to spend alot of money to get decent quality.. no matter what salespeople tell ya..

  I use an $8 Nady Dynamic vocal mic, and free software(audacity) and I play all the instruments myself, recording each track seperate... then mix via software... so I really don't need a mixer at this time per se...   although, I would like to switch to a good condensor mic, and will need a pre-amp for that...  Anyway, I have now made this entirely too long, so, I will end it here......

  Hope it helps....
        
           Jim K

If you're recording a band, you may need several tracks recording at the same time.
You can do this by getting interface like MOTU 2408 stuff, (not real cheap), but you still would need a mixer.
   Alesis now makes a mixer with built in A/D converters(interfaces).
   It has on board effects, hooks up with a fire wire cable.
   I haven't tried it, I have heard it's ok.  You can find it at musicians friend. cost est.
500.00 to 700.00 This might be another option. Not sure of your budget.
  Like Jim wrote, Behringer has pretty good gear, at an affordable price too.

Thanks for the help.  I'll start having a look at the Behringer gear.

Going to get a Behringer 1202FX in the very near future; it's about the best available at the price, certainly in the UK (£86.00 from www.dv247.com).  I also intend to get the Behringer 1500w power amp, and a pair of Peavey 800W speakers - all for about £500.  Bargain!!!

get with me for some good ....ill loan it to ya mastering software
and yeah the motu stuff is good mackie makes some good gear
m-audio makes some affordable dig interface....once you have the mixer
but
 ever thought of staying analog?.....do you need midi ?
do you have a stock sound card?
I would look at m-audio.com
hope it helps

If you want to be able to record more than one track at a time, you will need a mixer that has mutiple outputs. Most live/front of house mixers usually have around 2-6 outputs.  Recording mixers usually have more outputs you can go analog or digital.
Yamaha 01V is a real nice mixer for the money you can lightpipe or tdif with the add on cards, this would give you direct inputs and outputs.

YOu will probably need to look around as there are many mixers and input/output configurations available. Find the one in your price range that meets your needs
Just remember if you want to multi record in digital format you will need Analog to digital/digital to analog converters. One for each channel. If you want to record
8 channels at a time you will need 8 ad/da conv. for example. Something to think about when recording a full band. That's why I had suggested looking at the alesis 16 channel board because you could record 16 tracks simultaniously and it has the ad/da converters built in just hook up the fire wire to your pc. This mixer also has built in effects like delays and chorus which is kinda ok if you need that for live mix.


Just  alittle more information  Hope this helps some.